Classic Doctor

The Doctor Who Symphony Spectacular is returning, new, updated, improved, and including real life Doctor number five, Peter Davidson, to run the proceedings. The idea, he thinks, is simple. “We tend to watch film or TV and we don’t tend to really listen to the music. We’re aware that it’s there, but often not really aware of how much it contributes to your viewing experience. And this was an opportunity to put the focus on the music as opposed to what’s happening on the screen. We still show clips at the concert, but you’re hearing and seeing a full orchestra playing the music.”

Of course classic Whovian music has a special Australian connection, the show’s theme written by expat Queenslander Ron Grainer, and much of the formative ‘incidental’ music written by Dudley Simpson. “It’s marvellous when you hear the theme done by the orchestra, immensely powerful music. My part is to come in and introduce pieces of music, and it’s nice to have that connection to the audience, and I like to make those bits between the pieces of music informal. The fans love the music and we have lots of additions in terms of monsters and aliens running around the auditorium trying to scare the heck out of people – it’s very much a theatrical experience too.”

With a tour featuring a full orchestra as well as various players, monsters and bit parts, there’s obviously a very interesting mix of personalities to deal with. “Yes makes backstage very interesting,” Davidson admits. “Every city we go to we’re auditioning people to be Cybermen or Daleks or whatever, and it’s quite an art. They often can’t see much while they’re running along ledges or whatever.

“Certainly in the last tour we did in January there was a piece from the classic era that was re-imagined for the orchestra, which was really popular, so I’m hoping that will happen again. Of course [in my time in the early 1980s] we had the very famous BBC Radiophonic Workshop doing our music. And it was more, I would say, incidental music, than an actual piece of music. Although you could sense, towards my time in the show and after, that these composers wanted to spread their wings. What happened when the series came back [in 2005], they had production means and a budget to get music recorded by a full orchestra. And the composer, Murray Gold, he wanted to write pieces of music for an orchestra, rather than just incidental bits, and it became a really big part of the show. So I’m quite envious of the quality of the music. I’m not knocking the Radiophonic and it was very much a part of the show and I loved it.” Given how much of that classic era experimentation with sound has now been acknowledged as inspiration for ‘new’ forms of music like EDM, who knows what might come around next.

The Doctor Who Symphony Spectacular dates:

SA: 24 Jan, Adelaide Entertainment Centre
WA: 31 Jan, Perth Arena
NSW: 7 Feb, Qantas Credit Union Arena, Sydney